


Find Your Way Back

by TheCityLightShow



Series: Imagine Tony and Bucky Prompts [4]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Bucky was his consort, Happy Ending, M/M, Tony is a Space King
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-04
Updated: 2017-02-04
Packaged: 2018-09-21 23:56:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9572576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheCityLightShow/pseuds/TheCityLightShow
Summary: Another day, another alien-invasion, another Avengers fight that came a hair too close to losing. Eventually, Tony was going to have to come clean.They weren’t invasions, they were scouting parties, and as the portals drifted closer to New York with each occurrence, the clock that had started to tick down with the first scout was drawing to a close.Tony liked the team, he really did, but there was no way to know how’d they react to him being the Prince and last remaining member of an alien race. Well, no, crowned or not, last remaining member made him King.So there’s that.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt for [imaginetonyandbucky](http://imaginetonyandbucky.tumblr.com/) over on tumblr!
> 
> The prompt was: _Imagine Tony being the last (and king/prince) of a really old race (they have magic and not of earth) and Bucky being his lover that fell into the void before the race went extinct. Bonus: Tony Turs dark + happy ending but they aren't heroes + smut [Anon]_
> 
> I apologise to the Anon, but I’ve not done smut with this one, and the darkness is more of a past-thing.

Tony twisted mid-air to watch the portal stutter closed. Another day, another alien-invasion, another Avengers fight that came a hair too close to losing. Eventually, Tony was going to have to come clean.

They weren’t invasions, they were scouting parties, and as the portals drifted closer to New York with each occurrence, the clock that had started to tick down with the first scout was drawing to a close.

Tony liked the team, he really did, but there was no way to know how’d they react to him being the Prince and last remaining member of an alien race. Well, no, crowned or not, last remaining member made him King.

So there’s that.

There’s also the finicky bit of information that the race currently scouting Earth were looking for him, rebuilt from the few stragglers he’d left alive once his initial fury had subsided. (The same could not be said for the those who had dared attack his home and lost him James. There wasn’t a molecule of them left anywhere in existence, Tony had taken great pleasure in that.)

“Tony?”

Steve’s worried voice brought Tony out of his memories, and Tony realised he was still just hung in the air, when the rest of the team had already gathered for pick up.

“I’m gonna fly back solo, Cap.” Tony snapped off a sloppy salute, and Jarvis shut down his com before Steve could protest.

If he was going to tell them, it may as well be today, and he’d need the little proof he had left.

 

He set up the old chest in the centre of the common floor, and sat down next to it. In it, were the only things he had left: an entire planet, whittled down to the contents of a chest. A book handed down from King to Princess and from Queen to Prince, a bag of old memory-coins, the crown his mother had worn, a few pictures, and the bundle of letters he and James had exchanged for years and years upon meeting, to the very last days before they were attacked and lost to each other.

It was the memory-coins he needed to be his proof – snippets of his life back before, leading all the way up to Howard and Maria finding him, damaged and de-aged to heal, lost and hopelessly alone. Some of them were worn from his overuse; those, he’d tucked away into his pocket, too personal to be shared. He ran his fingers over the joints and hinges, avoiding the padlock for it’d open on his touch, and waited for the team to come back.

The elevator doors opened, and evidently Jarvis had said something, because nobody had stopped to change, and none of them said a word as they sat down, no one taking a seat behind him, each of them watching him, concern on their faces. 

“What’s going on, Tony?” Steve asked when the silence began to stretch, and Tony sighed, running a hand through his hair.

“These forces attacking us aren’t an invasion. At least, not yet.” Tony supplied, and watched as everyone sat up straighter. He sunk a little further to the floor, not quite leaning back.

“How can you know that, friend Anthony?” Thor asked, frowning.

“Because they’re scouting parties,” he swallowed, “and I’ve seen them before.”

“C’mon man, don’t joke.” Clint told him, laughing a little, but Tony just raised an eyebrow at him. He brushed his fingers against the padlock then, and it sprang open. Tony removed it with shaking fingers – he was more nervous than he’d thought – and tucked it into his pocket before opening the lid of the chest.

Natasha was the first to come closer, inspect the contents. She caught his gaze after a moment, cocked her head, an unspoken _‘may I?’_ that Tony let her have. She reached for his mother’s crown, then, and carefully held it aloft. Bruce joined her then, Steve sinking to the floor next to Tony, though it was Thor who carefully retrieved the bag of coins.

“This is a women’s crown?” Bruce asked after a moment, and Tony laughed a little.

“You people and your gender roles. But yes, that was my mother’s crown, and her mother’s and her father’s and his father’s. It should be mine, but I never thought it fitting to be worn.” Tony told him, and Bruce settled to sit with a thump.

“You are much older than you would have us believe…” Thor murmured, carefully inspecting one of the coins. Tony simply smiled. He pressed in the centre of the coin, and Tony’s breath caught in his throat as the memory grew around them. There were gasps, and Clint fell off his perch on the arm of the couch at last. Tony stood up, and gestured for the others to.

“That’s my mother.” Tony pointed to a woman seemingly far off in the memory, stood in a doorway that didn’t exist in the room. “This is a few months before everything went wrong. That,” he gestured to the man now walking into the centre of the memory, “is me, and the man following me is- well, this language would call him James.”

The man following Tony – who didn’t look much different in the memory, except, perhaps, a little older, a little happier – had pale grey eyes and long brown hair, tied back in a ribbon, and an outfit almost as grand as the prince’s. Steve had gone still where he stood next to Tony, but said nothing, so Tony carried on, his eyes never leaving James.

“There’s- there’s not a word I can say in this language to name us, but we’re from somewhere across the galaxy from here. We weren’t a large empire, just that planet, but we traded far and wide, both our technology and our magic. These coins are a combination, tiny machines built to hold and preserve magical imprints over and over again. Those in the bag, all hold memories.” Natasha glanced at him then, seeming hesitant, even for her, to touch one. “There’s nothing horrific, and I’ve taken out which ones I don’t want to share.”

“Why tell us now?” Clint asked. “We’ve been living together for years now, what the fuck?”

“Because I’m doing my best to move on, but these scouting parties? My time’s up. I’ve got to leave, or go back to what I was.”

“I don’t understand.” Bruce told him, an edge of green to his eyes. “You’d just leave us to deal with it?”

“No!” Tony protested, only bringing his voice back down as a second thought. “No, god no, Bruce I’d never do that,” the memory faded back into the coin, to be replaced by another of Natasha’s selection – Howard and Maria were finding him, now, Maria convincing Howard to keep the child. “They’re looking for me.”

“For you?” Steve asked, softly, and Tony shot him a half smile.

“The race that are currently looking for me, betrayed us a long time ago. Sold us out to a third race. I lost my planet, my people, my l- James. It was just me, and I got angry. I stalked those that hadn’t died in the ensuing wars across the stars, and then when I could fight no more, and thought I was going to die, I let go.” Tony gestured to the retreating backs of his surrogate parents. “They found me, in the dirt, in their garden, obviously crashed, de-aged and distraught, even for a baby.” He laughed.

“And the guys looking for you?”

“The stragglers I left.” Tony muttered.

“You’re saying you killed a whole race of people?” Natasha asked. Tony nodded, not sure what to say. Clint swore loudly, and Bruce looked like he’d been slapped.

“I know this changes a lot, so just– look at the coins if you need to, what else is in the chest. Decide if you want me to stay or go. I’m just gonna-“ he gestured awkwardly at the elevator and dashed off.

 

It was a couple of hours before he dared go back up. There were no memories playing when he stepped out in the common floor, and the chest had been shut. The team were still sat around the floor, though, and turned to look as he entered.

“We have questions.” Steve told him, apparently having regained his voice from earlier. Tony swallowed, sitting down in the gap they made for him.

“Go ahead.”

“So you’re a King?” Clint blurted out, and Tony smiled sadly.

“I wasn’t ever crowned, but yes.”

“That’s so cool…” Clint muttered, yelping when Natasha whacked him over the back of his head.

“Have you always remembered that life?” Bruce asked.

“Yeah… it’s just there, always.” Tony tapped his head. “I’m still alien – it’s just my luck our biology is similar enough you’d never notice a difference, unless you knew what you what you were looking for.”

“And those differences are?” Bruce asked, almost eager, shocking Tony.

“I have a normal human lung capacity with the arc in, before that it was much larger, my heart has an extra valve, but an ECG never seems to pick it up, I don’t get burnt… a few other things that we’d have to look up, honestly.” Bruce nodded, a smile breaking out on his face at the ‘we’ and Tony let a little hope grow in his chest.

“Do you want to leave?” Thor asked, kicked puppy face in full affect.

“I’ve already lost one family. I’m- I’m not eager to lose another.” Tony told them, his sentence barely finished before Thor had swept him up into a hug.

“Then we are still agreed, yes?” Thor asked, and Tony was able to look and see then, the nodding and smiles from this weird-ass crazy family he’d found. Thor dumped Tony back on the floor, and Tony heaved a massive sigh of relief, earning laughter from the group.

“Just… one last thing.” Steve began, and Tony nodded, thinking, ‘ _anything, secrets of the universe? You got them’_. “The man… you called him James.” Steve swallowed. “What was he to you?” Tony stalled – truthfully struggling to find the right words more than he was afraid of the reaction.

“His title here would’ve been consort.” Tony settled on eventually, “though I had every intention to marry him. With a sibling to produce an heir, it wasn’t an issue to the empire for me to do so.”

“He was your fiancé?” Natasha asked, shuffling closer on Steve’s other side. Tony nodded, not sure what the issue was.

“I lost him, in the first days of the war. He- well, he was ripped into the void.” Tony muttered after a moment, and Steve’s face shattered. “Steve?” Tony asked, frowning at who he’d like to think was his best friend, and hoping to god he wasn’t about to find out _now_ that the good Captain wouldn’t approve.

“He didn’t die.” Steve whispered, more to himself than Tony, and Tony froze.

“What?” Tony uttered on a breath, barely audible, staring at Steve.

“Tony, who does James look like, to you? Who does he _share a name with_?” Natasha asked, and Tony frowned. James was uniquely precious, one of a kind in his humour and his intelligence, his attitude and every cell of his being. James was-

“Holy shit.” Tony whispered, “I- he was your Bucky. He was-“ Tony blinked back the burning in his eyes. “I missed him. I hung on too long and I _missed him_.”

No one knew quite what to say to that.


	2. Chapter 2

It was months before the next scouting party came. SHIELD had fallen, new Avengers had been added to the team, and Steve and Tony had been doing everything they could to find Bucky, who was still _not dead_. (Although. They’d read the files… moments had passed where Tony almost thought dead might’ve been kinder than being the _fucking Winter Soldier_. If Arnim Zola and Alexander Pierce weren’t already dead, Tony would tear them apart.)

This party was much bigger than the ones before it; to the point of, given the months between this and the last that had set them all on edge, Tony was hesitant to call it search party at all. That, and it opened right above the tower.

“Well, this is going to be fun.” Clint’s voice came across com’s cheerily, and Tony hoped that Natasha was close enough to whack him for that one. Fury had promised them reinforcements, curtesy of the favourites left after SHIELD fell, but Tony didn’t think it was going to be enough, this time.

“Tony…” Natasha began, wary in a way she seldom was.

“Yes, Nat?” Tony asked, picking off two of the scouts trailing him before slamming around the corner of a building too fast for them to bank properly.

“Why don’t you just wipe them out like you did last time?” she asked, and now Tony got the wariness.

“Because last time it took me two decades. We don’t _have_ that kind of time.”

“You spent two decades hunting people down?” Rhodey’s voice sounded faint – he and Pepper had taken the news less well than the team, but Rhodey had joined the battle without question, and promised Tony that they were still friends _‘even if it is fucking weird’_.

“Finding every last straggler of a race spanning several planets isn’t as easy as you think.” Tony murmured, though he couldn’t regret what he’d done. They’d deserved every little second of pain they’d been dealt, and world’s more Tony simply hadn’t had in his power to deliver, for what they’d done to his race.

“I’m actually kind of terrified.” Sam muttered, and Tony grinned to himself. He’d do what he could to change that, of course, but he’d always had power around death. Becoming the Merchant of Death to planet such as this had been oddly fitting – he hadn’t been ready to let go of the title for the longest time, both a burden and a shield. He’d have to thank Rhodey and Pepper properly, one day, for reminding him what it was truly like to have a family. If they were all still here to talk, that is.

“There are many thousands beyond the portal,” Thor told them over com’s – Tony could hear a dull thud as his hammer collided with one of them, “we must get it closed or I fear they may be too much, even for us.” His voice was grave, and a quiet descended over the com’s. Steve cleared his throat.

“Alright Avengers, by JARVIS’s extrapolation this portal will be open for eight hours – keep people off the streets, keep the bastards out of buildings.” Steve’s instructions were clear, and Tony knew that by now, they didn’t need any more detail.

 

It had been two and a half hours (and 48 seconds) when the aforementioned reinforcements turned up, although they didn’t make themselves known.

“Uh, guys?” That was Clint, and Tony was too busy trying to lose the scout on his tail to spot the archer. “Did Fury say they were sending a sniper? Because _somebody_ is picking these guys off and it’s not me.” The scout crashed into a building then – thankfully not one with any life signs – and Tony whirled. There were scouts dropping – it was obvious then, that the only reason Tony didn’t have more scouts on his tail is because someone was hitting them before they could get close.

“JARVIS, find that sniper.” Tony instructed. “And patch us into their com’s, any of them, we need to know what’s going on.” Tony dashed off again, dropping down behind Steve when he noticed the Captain looked a little surrounded.

“ _What’s going on?_ ” That was Maria Hill’s voice. “ _We didn’t bring a sniper, we’ve got ex-agents keeping people off the streets. You’re doing the bulk of the fighting._ ”

“Miss Hill, there’s a sniper in one of these buildings, if they’re not yours then who are they?” Steve asked. There was no reply, and Steve sighed, throwing the shield and defying all laws of physics to take out several scouts on foot and have it bounce back. 

“Boys,” Natasha spoke up, “the portal’s closing.”

Tony looked up, and sure enough, it was, the nearest scouts heading back to whatever ship lay on the other side, the others carrying on an assault. They were easy pickings, especially with the help of the lone sniper, whomever they were. 

A thought struck Tony, then. “Cap, you don’t think it could be…?” Steve bit out a curse – somewhere in the distance Tony thought he could hear Clint laugh at the sudden swearing – and was nodding before he could speak.

“If he’s getting his memories back, it fits.” Steve replied, hope in his voice despite being mid-battle.

“Jarvis, track the trajectories, we’ve got a soldier to bring home.” Tony instructed, heart pounding louder than it had all battle. A blip appeared on the map in his HUD within moments. “You good, Cap?”

“Get going, Shellhead!” Steve told him, slamming his shield into a scout as Tony took off, zipping between buildings until he found the roof he was looking for.

“Soldier?” Tony asked, upon landing, flipping up the face plate – automatically deactivating his com – and hoping beyond hope that James would know him. The man crouched on the roof with his rifle whirled then, eyes hidden behind goggles, face behind a _muzzle_ , but he sagged in relief. He slowly got to his feet, and pulled off the muzzle and then the goggles. He looked up, and Tony’s heart stopped. “James.”

“Hey doll.” James muttered, voice a little rough from obvious disuse. He smiled, and the armour disengaged before Tony was even aware of asking for it, and he was stumbling out in nothing but his flight suit, uncaring. James hugged him back without hesitation, everything attached to his jacket pressed between them uncomfortably, but it didn’t matter.

James pulled back after a moment to kiss Tony on the forehead, and Tony beamed up at him, happily reaching up to run his hands through James’ rather shaggy hair – it’d always been long in Tony’s memory, but Steve was going to find it weird – his entire being singing with the notion that somehow, despite everything, James remembered.

“What happened?” James asked then, and Tony fliched. “After the battle of A-“

“I… a lot happened. It’s- it’s just you and me, James. For a long time it was just me.” James’ face shattered, and his grip on Tony tightened, just slightly.

“I’m so sorry.” He whispered, but Tony shook his head.

“I- God, I thought I’d lost you, James.” Tony raised a hand to cup James’ cheek, and the soldier leant into it, pulling Tony close again by his waist. He grinned, then, and Tony was laughing into the kiss before it even happened, happy and free in a way he’d never been on Earth before.

 

“Someone’s yelling at you from the suit.” James told him after a long moment, and Tony swore. He walked back to it, before pulling out the detachable com and demanding;

“What _now?_ ”

“Tony! What’s going on, you just dropped out!” Steve was more worried than annoyed and Tony rolled his eyes at James, making him laugh. 

“Yeah yeah, hang on Winghead.” Tony muttered. He handed the com to James, and clambered back in the suit.

“Nice to hear your voice, Stevie.” James told him over the com, and Steve’s choked ‘Bucky’ was lost under various yelling and cheering, and a grin lit James face. “You sure found yourself a family, huh, doll?”

“You have no idea. I hate to do this, but are you good to stay up here and keep picking them off?” Tony asked, and James was nodding before Tony had finished.

“And don’t just favour your boyfriend!” Clint yelled across com’s, and James just laughed at him.

**Author's Note:**

> If you want to give me a prompt, send me an ask at my **[tumblr](http://thecitylightshow.tumblr.com/)** , I've a couple in the works, but I'll get to it soon! And of course, please check out the blog, [imaginetonyandbucky](http://imaginetonyandbucky.tumblr.com/), there's some absolutely beautiful pieces of work over there that deserve everyone's support!


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